Search party Saturday for man who went missing from Republic night club

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Mark Bakotic II photo courtesy NOPD

Search party Saturday for man who went missing from Republic night club

Mark Bakotic II photo courtesy NOPD

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – The 22-year-old who went missing from Republic night club in late December after taking a psychedelic drug could still be wandering the streets of New Orleans.

Friends have organized a search party for Mark Bakotic II that starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4. Click here for info.

Bakotic has been missing since December 30, when he was last seen by his friends outside of Republic. He had taken a drug called 2CE and then took off from his friends in a disoriented state of mind.

NOPD announced his disappearance several days later after Bakotic’s credit cards were used at various locations. The two women who tried to use the – 34-year-old Karima Peters and 31-year-old Brittany Pinera – turned themselves in to face charges of illegal possession of stolen things and access device fraud, but they are not considered persons of interest in Bakotic’s disappearance.

There have been several reported sightings of Bakotic, including one woman who said he walked up to her stoop on Esplanade Avenue Jan. 9 and had a long conversation with her. She said he didn’t know his name, but appeared “content in whatever state he was in.”

Bakotic’s father, who has driven from Hurley, Mississippi, to New Orleans almost daily to look for his son, told Nola.com that there have been other reported encounters in Jackson Square

He also said his son had only been living in New Orleans for three months before he disappeared.

Anyone with information on Bakotic’s whereabouts is asked to call NOPD’s Fifth District detectives at 504-658-6050.